Giles MacDonogh
@GilesMacDonogh
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British-Austrian Historian, FRHistS. Author of 15 books on German history, French gastronomy and wine. Last book, 'On Germany' (Hurst) published August 2019.
London
Joined December 2012
A friend of mine died at home of the plague this week: City financier, Oxford DPhil. He called 111: no response. He called 999: none there either. He was quite alone. He won't even figure in the government's statistics.
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My mother, Lisa Zirner, has just died. She was 97. Here is a picture taken by my sister three years ago, before she went into terminal decline. Lisa Zirner, born Vienna 13 April 1927, died Paris, 9 May 2024.
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Speaking on France Info radio, Amelie de Montchalin said it’s still possible for Britain to revoke Article 50, meaning the U.K. would remain in the EU and cancel Brexit. Montchalin said “the prime minister can pick up his phone and call Brussels to say: “I stop everything.”.
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Boris Johnson's woes escalate as video emerges of Steve Bannon saying he helped write speech
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"My England would be the one that recognises its place in the EU. The jingoistic England that is trying to march us out of the EU, that is an England I don't want to know.". David Cornwell, alias John Le Carré, 1931 - 2020.
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Hallelujah! . Over three years after our initial applications, and nearly eight years after Brexit, my children and I have become Austrian. We have won back our freedom of movement. Felix austria!
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An Irish friend has sent me a joke: . A Dublin man sees a sign outside a Kerry farmhouse:.'Talking Dog For Sale'. He rings the bell, the owner appears and tells him the dog can be viewed in the back garden. The man sees a nice looking Black Labrador Retriever sitting there.
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“A tenner?? But this dog is absolutely amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheaply?"."Because he's a lying bastard. He's never been out of the garden!".
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BBC News - EU subsidy loss could wipe out farms, farmers say amid Brexit uncertainty
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@JimMFelton @Andrew_Adonis It is a proper tribute to the great democracy we live in that someone as utterly brainless and as incredibly ill-informed as Nadine could be elected to represent us.
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Ma mère Lisa Zirner MacDonogh, agée de 94 ans, disparue près de son appartement jeudi 9 septembre #Montparnasse #Paris vers 16h. @prefpolice
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I wonder if. ordinary Nigerians are now receiving e.mails from British businessmen asking them if they might use their bank accounts to launder a bit of dosh?.
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In Odessa, soldiers building defences unearth amphorae:
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Good news: she has been found. She is in the Hopital Cochin in Paris.
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The German President nails it here, I think.
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Asparagus tracked down to a backstreet café in Frankfurt. It was bliss:
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Bromley man heads for the Weald and freedom in the European Zone.
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@PhilipSime I am sure before February 1933 Nazi members of the Reichstag did something very similar. They too entered parliament to destroy it. And they succeeded. The rest (as they say) is history.
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My daughter, fumbling around in a derelict e.mail box, has just informed me that I have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. It was a very pleasant surprise. Thank you @RoyalHistSoc.
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Is Britain now morally, ethically and financially bankrupt?
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How ghastly that this picture represents London - the worst modern architecture in the world, and the legacy of Mayor #Borage. How many brown envelopes here?
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Here's a bit of fun. My mother's wedding certificate arrived this morning. She was eight months pregnant with my brother the devil when she wed. Who can spot the best man?
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The French may be pretty silly sometimes, but they are not half as silly as we are.
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'Late last night the Prime Minister gave a bizarre speech to the UN, comparing Brexit to having your liver pecked out by an eagle for all eternity.' #Borage Prometheus! As some Berlin wit put it: 'Poor eagle - every day is liver!'.
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@DavidGauke @SieurdePonthieu We were not in Schengen, We always had to show our passports when we entered a Schengen country. On the other hand they did not need to be stamped! That must take up a hell of a lot more time.
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What's to be done withe the Villa Goebbels? .Once owned by Goebbels, it is too expensive to keep and too perilous to sell. No one knows quite what to do with it, but keeping it mothballed costs Germany 280,000 euros a year.
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On 14 February, Navalny sent a St Valentine's day message to his wife, Yulia, with a photo:. "Between us there are cities [and] thousands of kilometres, but I feel that you are near every second, and I love you more and more."
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Just found this nice picture of my great-grandfather's shop:
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This is the ugliest, most ill-executed and most vulgar thing I have seen in a very long time:
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Breaking: Madame Arcate to be elevated to the Lords and appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Dancing and Technology
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Cat stands guard at the place where Caesar was killed:
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@Eyeswideopen69 @etxberria55 They would have voted for this if it wore a blond wig and a blue rosette:
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'We've got them cornered. We might have to parley with them a bit before we can bring them in.'
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The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson:.
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Found a copy of my first book (1987) in a charity shop in Palmer's Green. It was £3. I bought it because I am down to six copies. The author photograph comes as a bit of a shock now:
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House of Lords rejects government Rwanda Bill again - well done your Lordships.
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'Have you thought about what subjects you'd like to do for A-Level?'
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Dropped into @waitrose Holloway Road to buy French butter. One out of three fresh fruit and veg lines was absent and replaced by an upside-down crate. What is amiss?.
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'We found 'im in a ditch. Bloke says 'e's the "prime monster" or some crap. Do I charge 'im chief?'
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The Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, where Stauffenberg detonated his bomb 76 years ago today.
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BBC News - Yvette Lundy: French Resistance member who survived Nazi camps dies at 103
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Great Britain is ruled by ten Orangemen who do not even represent the majority of Northern Irish people:
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Sophie was a wonderful girl, but should we not raise a cheer for her brother, his tutor and the other members of the gang too?
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Polish PM Morawiecki writes to Zelensky :. 'We will never desert you. We will be with you because we know that you are not just fighting for your liberty, for your own home and your own security, but also for ours.'.
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I understand there is to be a rally in Parliament Square later?
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I understand why this particular CBE rankles so, but these baubles have lost so much value and become so utterly meaningless that it might be less painful for everyone if they were to scrap them altogether?.
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Behind this door in an secret world comprised of 100 + unelected SPADs and courtesans formed into factions. They rule our lives. They take the decisions that become law. We have the right to know what goes on in there and judge whether this form of government is appropriate.
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@Richardvines What very sad news. Certainly in part another 'Brexit benefit', as Roux was unable to find skilled staff. Le Gavroche was to some extent the last of its kind, having begun life as the first great French restaurant on British soil that was not in a hotel dining room.
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Grimy Darren: has anyone ever before been projected so far beyond the confines of his abilities?.
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#Borage's age: 56. #Carrie's age: 33. Adolf's age at time of marriage: 56. Eva's age at time of wedding: 33. #JustSaying.
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61 Canadians banned from Russia. Britain only merited 13. Putin hates Canada four times as much.
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Avoid the crowds in the streets and parks, stay at home and read (never was there a better moment):
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Suspicious man seen in the vicinity of Buckingham Palace. He is believed to be dangerous. Members of the public are advised to maintain their distance and report any sightings to the Metropolitan Police.
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'The decision to learn a foreign language is to me an act of friendship. It is indeed a holding out of the hand. It’s not just a route to negotiation. It’s also to get to know you better, to draw closer to you and your culture, your social manners and your way of thinking.
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@abdalhadealani A little boy, born in prison, who didn't know what a bird was and had never seen the sun!.
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Antiques Road Show?.
The only Russian tank present at today’s Victory Day parade in Moscow was a single T-34.
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The first prisoners land in the new British penal colony in Rwanda:
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The British Civil Service must realise by now what is planned for them. They are going to be castrated. Henceforth they will be associated with the acts and policies of a gangster government. It might be wiser to resign en masse before it's too late?.
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Just packed my boy off to university. Strangely draining, emotional experience.
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'Do you remember the day. Lettuce, when you were PM, and I was your deputy? We sang like two birds in a cage! I poured sewage into rivers and you and your boy, Quasi, you fucked the economy!' . 'It was all such fun!'
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'An appeal has been launched in the Czech Republic to "save" the equivalent of 1,305,552 pints of craft beer that will go off "within weeks" if it is not drunk.The beer is languishing undrunk in barrels in 32 craft breweries across the country.
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Tory rebels were equally unhappy. Andrew Brigden, the MP for North West Leicestershire, tweeted the article by Lord Hague in which the former Tory leader called for Johnson to resign. "The prime minister should now leave with honour and residual affection for what he has.
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